A Different Time follows the friendship, lives and love of June and Maggie, two women from a Lancashire mill town that’s crumbling under the weight of its former glory. We first meet the pair as friends who work together at the local textiles mill, Ringwood Mill at some point during the very late 1960s and early 1970s. Their friendship is rooted in the possibility of a life better lived than the one that currently faces them. We quickly see the pair begin to wrestle with their internal desire for each other, against the expectation of their external circumstances. The push and pull of what the heart wants, versus what’s expected of them as women in the time they exist in. The weight of external expectation ultimately emerges triumphant. Following an impassioned moment together, Maggie bolts, choosing to marry local councillor and future MP, George Fitzpatrick; to please her mother. Time moves on and we next meet June as a wife and mother, still working at Ringwood. If it wasn’t for June’s apparent ageing, it’s almost like nothing has changed at all. Through her interaction with her friend Alison, we learn of Maggie’s elevated social status and the clear absence of contact between June and Maggie. In a chance meeting at a local cabaret, hosted by drag queen, Vic Maple, June and her husband Bob, find themselves being invited to dinner at The Moorings; the home of George and Maggie. The events of the dinner are heated and tense as Maggie and June begin to face the consequences of the lives they have chosen for themselves. After the evening culminates in June being thrown out, after light is shed on George’s infliction of marital abuse upon Maggie; the pair are once again, separated.
We next meet June, how in her sunset years and at a time when external expectations have
somewhat moved on. The death of George Fitzpatrick prompts June to finally come out to her son, Anthony, who persuades his mother to fight for Maggie. The pair reconcile and life finally feels free. Yet the realities of Maggie’s declining cognitive health and the impact of years of abuse; ultimately prevent A Different Time from ending in the happy-ever-after they both deserve. A Different Time is a queer drama that centres around female same-sex love, friendship and companionship against the backdrop of womanhood, class, and hetronormative societal conditioning.